Scope's Trial And Inherit The Wind

The Effects of One’s nature

One’s actions inherit much of his (or her) nature. Sometimes, the influence of one's nature leads to a positive outcome; other times, it leads to doom.Written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and based on the 1925 “Scope’s Trial”, Inherit the Wind depicts two arguments for man’s origin: evolution and creation. In the play, Matthew Harrison Brady is the prosecuting attorney of the “Monkey Trial”. Since Hillsboro, the town the trial is taking place, is very religiously fervent, the crowd is biased towards Brady. Despite this major advantage, Brady loses due to his characteristics (he technically wins the trial, but the crowd loses their respect for Brady and Bert Cates, the defendant, receives little

He showcases his arrogant attitude and believes that Drummond will help emphasize the triumph of the creationists as his victory over Drummond is inevitable. As a result, Brady allows Drummond to challenge him on the court, which creates the chance of him losing the trial; if any other lawyer is in place of Drummond, Brady will surely win the trial since he is one of the best lawyers in the country. As the story progresses further, Brady makes another mistake. In this instance, Drummond throws down the gauntlet; he asks Brady to be a witness of the trial as the expert of The Bible, not before praising him as “one of the world’s foremost experts on The Bible and its teachings” (75). The judge grants Brady the right to refuse the request; Brady, however, chooses to accept Drummond’s request, and responds: “Your honor, I will not testify against anything. I shall speak out, as I have all my life–on behalf of the Living Truth of the Holy Scriptures!” (75). Since Brady is one of the best attorneys in the country, it is easy to assume that he realises that Drummond’s invitation is a trap; nonetheless, Brady’s overwhelming pride deludes him to think that he is “one of the world’s foremost experts on The Bible and its teachings” and that his “impeccable” knowledge of The Bible will prevail in the end. Unfortunately, the result of the trial proves otherwise. Drummond capitalises on Brady’s mistake and quickly turns the

His relentless barrage of attacks, which emerges from his bigotry, towards to those who supports Darwin demonstrates only his hate towards evolutionism. An example of this is when Brady is conducting his speech in the court. He says: “I say that these Bible-haters, these “Evilutionists”, are brewers of poison.” (63). Brady hurls many similar insults to the evolutionists during the trial. Another example of this is when Brady refers a Zoologist a “zoo-oligical hogwash that slobbered around the school rooms” (73). Because of these verbal attacks, originated from his intolerance of anything theory of creation other than by god, Brady offers no reason to prove that the Butler Act, which bans any theories other than the creation of man in The Bible in public schools, is just; this is in contrast to Drummond, who explains that banning other books that contradicts The Bible is unjust as it limits thinking. For this reason, as the trial proceeds onwards, the crowd starts to slowly side with Drummond; they realise that Drummond has a point, Brady has nothing. Brady’s bigotry repels his supporters as his insults add nothing but hate towards evolutionists. In the end, it loses Brady the crowd’s respect, and the